vow, but lived in the same State many years, "a prosperous gentleman."


* * * * *


A PUT-UP JOB--OR CHANCE?

The ways of the petitioner are deep and mysterious. The Virginia
(Illinois) _Enquirer_, March 1, 1879, had the following:

"John McNamer (Namara?) was buried last Sunday, near Petersburg,
Menard County. He was an early settler and carried on business at New
Salem. Abe Lincoln was the postmaster there and kept a store. It was
here that, at the tavern, dwelt the fair Annie Rutledge, in whose
grave Lincoln wrote that his heart was buried. As the story runs, the
fair and gentle Annie was John's sweetheart, but Abe took 'a shine' to
her, and succeeded in heading off Mac, and won her affections. During
the war, a Kentucky lady went to Washington with her daughter to
procure her son's pardon for being a guerrilla. The daughter was a
musician. Sitting at the piano while her mother was sewing, she sang
'Gentle Annie.' While it was being charmingly rendered, Abe rose from
his seat, crossed the room to a window, and gazed out for several
minutes with that sad, 'far-away' look noticed as one of his
particularities. When he returned to his seat he wrote a note which,
as he said, was the pardon besought. The scene proves that Mr. Lincoln
was a man of fine feelings, and that, if the occurrence was a put-up
job on the lady's part, it accomplished the purpose all the same."